For 26 seasons Survivor’s tried, tested and true formula has remained mostly unchanged, so if you tuned in on Wednesday expecting more of the same, then you would have been pleasantly surprised by the season 27 premiere.

Taking place in the Philippines’ Palaui Island, we have known the premise for a couple of months: 10 returning players would compete alongside and against a family member. It promised to be the ultimate test of loyalty vs. one’s desire to win — after all, only one person can win the title of “Sole Survivor.” What we didn’t know was how the teams were going to be divided into tribes or even how large of an effect, if any, this would have on the game.

It was a high-risk move that, if properly executed, could redefine the game and the way that it’s played. And boy did it pay off in a big way.

From the moment Survivor: Blood vs. Water started, it was evident that we were in for a drastically different experience from the past 13 years, with no shortage of twists and turns.

After spending the first portion of the episode being introduced to this season’s cast, we were told that each pair would spend the first night in the jungle before being shuffled and divided into tribes. The hope was that the veteran player would give their rookie counterpart a crash-course on playing the game, but a quick glimpse of what looked to be an all-around unpleasant night was followed by seeing each group make their way to a beach and the smiling, ever-youthful host Jeff Probst.

Without wasting any time, Probst tells the pairs that they will be separated into two tribes.

The first, Galang, would consists of the Survivor alumni, which included a number of notable players including Season 2 winner Tina Wesson, plus Tyson Apostol, Colton Cumbie and the show’s most popular castaway, Rupert Boneham. The other tribe, Tadhana, would solely consist of their loved ones.

After Probst announced how the tribes would be divvied up, a number of questions started to form in my head. How will the veteran players look out for their family members? Will seeing that one of their loved ones had been voted off right before a challenge affect their performance? Or, as Monica Culpepper’s husband Brad alluded to, would someone throw a reward challenge to provide for their loved one or would they throw an immunity challenge to save them?

With thoughts on how this twist would affect the game until the two tribes merged mid-season swirling through my head, we were given yet another twist. Both tribes had to immediately vote out one of their members.

With barely enough time to learn one another’s names, each castaway was handed a pen and paper and instructed to write someone’s name down.

After the returning players voted off Candice Woodcock (formerly from Cook Islands and Heroes vs. Villains) and the tribe of loved ones unanimously voted out Rupert’s wife Laura, Probst revealed that they would not be voted out of the game but instead sent to Redemption Island, a place where eliminated players can compete for a chance to return to the game.

As Laura and a noticeably sour Candice prepared to leave the beach, Probst presented both of their significant others with an opportunity to switch places with them. Before he could even finish explaining how this would work, Rupert immediately volunteered to take his wife’s place on Redemption Island while Candice’s husband John chose to stick with his tribe.

While incredibly tense and entertaining, this twist was primarily used as a way to reveal this season’s inclusion of Redemption Island. Like Exile Island before it, Redemption Island has proved to be much better in theory than in practise and I felt it to be an unnecessary addition to what should otherwise be a groundbreaking season.

After spending the first half of the episode revealing the season’s twists, both tribes were sent off to their respective beaches where they both started putting together a shelter.

With eight returning players, the veteran team got a shelter and working fire prepared in no time, whereas the rookie team struggled at putting together a shelter and failed to secure any fire.

As Tadhana attempted to get their camp in order, Brad noticed that the men outnumbered the women on the tribe 5-4 and immediately formed a five-man alliance with Hayden Moss (Kat Edorsson’s boyfriend), Caleb Bankston (Colton’s fiancé), Vytas Baskauskas (Aras Baskauskas’s brother) and John.

At Galang camp, Colton, in an attempt to prove to his tribe that he has changed his backstabbing ways from Survivor: One World, opened up about the adversity he faced as a youth and broke down in front of the campfire.

Meanwhile, back at Redemption Island, Rupert refused to help Candice maintain their shelter or gather firewood supply because, as he noted, his biggest downfall was always spending his energy providing for his tribe when he should have instead been saving it for challenges.

As has become the norm in Survivor, the first reward/immunity challenge was a complex obstacle course with a tricky puzzle at the end. In this challenge, six members from each tribe had to swim over various obstacles to a boat that contained a chest of puzzle pieces. Once at the boat, teams had to paddle back to shore where they would have their three remaining tribemates complete the puzzle.

Despite Tadhana getting off to a significant early lead that saw them get their boat back to shore well before Galang, Tina, Monica and Laura Morett managed to make up a ton of time on the puzzle and send the rookies to their first tribal council.

After a bittersweet departure from the challenge, which had many players from the winning team anxious on the outcome of the night’s tribal council, Brad’s five-man alliance returned to camp to debate whether or not they should vote out Katie Wesson (Tina’s daughter) for blowing the puzzle portion of the challenge, or Marissa Peterson (Gervase Peterson’s niece) because of how her uncle gloated after winning the challenge.

A painfully uneventful first tribal council saw the five-man alliance stay strong and punish Gervase for his obnoxious ways by making Marissa the first person to be voted out of this fresh season. She became the newest member of Redemption Island and will go head to head with both Rupert and Candice in next week’s episode.

And to think that all this happened in the first episode of what should be one of Survivor’s most interesting seasons in recent memory.

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